Writing for Inc. Magazine, Gainsight’s Nick Meta emphasizes the value of the community that should form around a product and a company if it is to be successful over the long term. But what does that community look like in practice? What are the pieces of that puzzle? How do they fit together to form a cohesive whole? What makes a community truly a community? What is the most important understanding that the company needs to realize? That the community and the product are not separate; the product is the community.
Definition: Community

When I analyze product communities, I look for several key factors. I begin with communication channels; who speaks to that community and how do they listen in return? Company communication channels are usually one-way. Some companies go further to maintain listening channels to get at the voice of the customer, but this is not enough. Communication channels are vital, but they will not themselves automatically create that single crucial aspect of community: a sense of ongoing, mutually-beneficial connectedness — a relationship.
It’s About the Relationship

The third core factor in my mind is consistency of process. Is the basic identity of the community, that perception of relationship, cohesively reinforced in all activities? Does everything in and around this community walk the talk, in other words?
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Bedrock Reality
We know how to sell technological bells and whistles, the industry has been doing it for more than 60 years. But those are just table stakes to get into the game. The most important realization for a company is that its product has to be much more than those bells and whistles. There is no sustainable competitive advantage in features and functions, they are too easily duplicated. What persists is that which cannot be quickly copied, for it has to be earned and sustained. What companies need to learn is how to create and market communities as products over the long term. If you’re up for that challenge, let’s talk. Join us in The Customer Success Forum on LinkedIn for the discussion. Log into LinkedIn first, then click.
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Mikael Blaisdell
